Tag Archives: skin

So I have a silly, futile goal of reducing the confusion over sweet potatoes and yams in the United States. If you are a grocery store manager and are on board with this silly, futile goal, please consider displaying the flesh inside the different sweet potato varieties you sell. Doing that will reduce reliance on the strange habit of calling orange-fleshed sweet potatoes “yams.” You can easily show the insides of your sweet potatoes by chopping one in half and wrapping the cut end in plastic wrap, then placing back into the display shelf — you can even use a Sharpie to write stuff on the plastic (I’ve never seen this done … but I’m sure it would work). Or you can make signage that has a photograph of flesh. If you also add some thoughts on how to use them in cooking, even better. Below are two examples of ‘Nancy Hall’ and ‘Beauregard’ sweet potatoes that I cooked over the weekend.

Note that the word “yam” does not appear on the sign. If you are the type that says, “What?? You idiot. That sure looks like a yam to me!” … please have look over my “Yams versus sweet potatoes” page. It probably won’t change your opinion, but you’ll at least know what a yam looks like.

On a side note, my ‘Nancy Hall’ sweet potatoes turned out great. I partially cooked them in the oven (coat with bacon fat first) and then sauteed the diced flesh with butter and hickory bark syrup. I used the ‘Beauregard’ to make biscuits. It turns out that biscuits are good with Chessmen cookie butter. Just saying.

Some photographs to get you excited about starches on Thanksgiving. If you’re curious about the difference between yams, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, please refer to my page, “Yams and sweet potatoes are not potatoes.”

The bin of “#1 American yams” is filled with sweet potatoes. The labeling mistake is a common one. The white yam and yellow yams are actual yams.Okinawan sweet potatoes label as yams. They are not yams.Oriental sweet potatoes. Note that sweet potatoes are not potatoes.Potatoes are unrelated to sweet potatoes.